Once upon a time, in the magical world of Equestria, there were six ponies who possessed great power and protected all around them. Two Earth Ponies, two Pegasi, a single Unicorn, and the Princess of Friendship herself made up this group. They each represented a facet of Harmony, and wielded its power as a weapon against the dark forces that threatened their world.
Honesty, the power of truth.
Laughter, the power of joy.
Loyalty, the power that kept them together.
Kindness, the power that drove them to help those in need.
Generosity, the power that drove them to give to others.
Finally, Magic, the power of the other five combined, which they brought down upon their foes to either heal or imprison.
These six were the best of friends, which strengthened their power even further. The creatures of Tartarus feared their wrath, though their was no wrath to fear. Each was benign, and the thought of performing cruel acts was far from their minds.
However, good things cannot last forever. A seed of betrayal was planted within their group, and slowly they grew apart. As their friendship lessened, so did the power of Harmony. All at once, a great darkness seized the group, and they all vanished, leaving Equestria unprotected. The rulers of the Sun and Moon vanished soon after, and the ponies of Equestria were left to fend for themselves. They were no match, however, for the great evil that arrived, and were too stunned by their attacker that they did not even try. They dared not strike the new dark force, for it...
There as always, the story ended. The pages were torn and burnt.
Soul Flash sighed, closing the book with a turn of his head and a brief violet glow from the tip of his grey horn. He had read that story countless times now. He didn't know why he continued to return to it; it was a mediocre foal's tale at best, and very ancient judging by the strange group it talked about. The different breeds hadn't properly communicated outside of political gatherings and trade for a very long time. Yet for some reason, the story was always the first one Soul Flash looked at when he returned to this withered old library. There were many other books, most much longer, more informative, and more suited to a stallion his age than this one, but he found he couldn't not read it first. The unicorn huffed, levitating the leather-bound book over to a pile of others just like it. None of those drew his attention quite as much, but he refused to place that short story with the other books he actually enjoyed.
Speaking of better books, Soul Flash looked around at the old rotting shelves of the library that was practically already a pile of rubble. Somehow, the books of this place had survived the weather and time. He suspected a powerful charm of some sort, maybe similar to the kind he'd placed on his own notes and findings. Soul Flash was the kind of pony who practically lived for his studies. Actually, that was truer for him than it was for most others. It was the only thing he really could do after all, since he lived alone in this forest. He had all his life. He really couldn't remember a time when he wasn't alone. Of course, there were the occasional visits to the nearby village, for food and all that, but he tried his best to be as unknown as possible. It was better that way. He felt comfortable alone.
If you were trying to destroy the country's ruthless dictator whose magic is unimaginably strong, you'd stick to the shadows too.
It wasn't like it was easy avoiding attention, not with his odd looks. Most other unicorns were colorful and bright, with cutie marks relatively easy to decipher. Soul Flash, not so much. He was dark grey, almost black, and had been mistaken for a trespassing shadow pony once or twice because of it, though his violet mane and eyes quickly extinguished those thoughts once someone actually looked at him. His cutie mark was a black circle, with a white one inside of it. It represented magic, both light and dark, but the others didn't know that and it led to some stares. The unicorns in the village nearby weren't exactly friendly to odd ponies either, and would ask him to show his magic, as if they were skeptical of his true breed.
When would they learn that the other breeds weren't stupid enough to wander into unicorn territory, nor skilled enough to create a realistic looking horn?
Soul Flash eventually settled on taking a few of the more interesting books home with him. The sun was starting to set. It was earlier than usual, but if Empress Enigma felt like lowering it now, there was nothing he could do to change it. The creatures of the forest would still come out, regardless of how early it was in reality. He levitated a few off the shelves, not really paying attention besides giving them a brief glance, then slid them into his saddlebags. He quickly trotted out of the ruins and began his journey through the forest. The vines of the trees around him were already starting to twitch as the sun set further behind the horizon and the moon slowly rose to take its place. After a minute, he'd have to illuminate his horn to see. Luckily, he'd make it home before that.
His claimed house wasn't visible at first, just a bare plot of empty land across a canyon with a bridge that threatened to come apart if even the slightest bit of pressure was applied. Soul Flash didn't bother to test his luck, instead just levitating himself across. He looked around, though it was more of a reflex than an actual check for bystanders, then his horn began to glow in shades of black and green. Violet flames lit in the corners of his eyes for a moment as he focused on the empty ground before him. With a stomp of a hoof, the dark magic came to an abrupt stop and a thin black cloth floated to the ground before him. A ruined castle now stood on the previously empty ground. It was mostly free of the vines that covered the rest of the forest, but ominous just the same.
Soul Flash smiled, and wrapped the enchanted black cloth around his neck. He left it on the grounds whenever he left along with a small spell, and the ruin remained hidden along with the makeshift scarf. It only responded to his magic signature, which meant there was no chance of any other unicorn (or alicorn) breaking the charm and finding his projects and crafted spells. The grey unicorn hurried inside the ruin, leaving a protection spell in place of the door, which had decayed long before he had come to live here long ago. Soul Flash couldn't remember how long he really had been here, and he didn't particularly care. His memory had faded as he buried his nose in dusty books on magic spells and dark curses, and he was perfectly alright with that.
He settled down in his makeshift library, which was really just a cluttered room that held more books than anything else, and set to work levitating the books out of his saddlebags and arranging them in whatever sorting system he was partial to that day. Author name, genre, or color...? He stopped when he levitated up a particular brown book with black burns and torn out pages.
That book again.
He scowled at it, and carelessly tossed it away, angry at himself for taking it and angry at the book for existing in the first place. It was getting annoying, reading the same story over and over again, but he couldn't stop! It was like the book had hypnotized him or something. Maybe it was charmed, that was probably a good enough reason to burn it some more...No, he wasn't that angry at it. And anyway, who would purposefully burn a book? Somepony who didn't deserve to live, that's who.
It took a while to sort through the books, and it was only now that Soul Flash realized how many he had taken. Arcane Arts, Beast Taming, there was even one for pegasi on wind and how it affected flying. Why had that even been in a unicorn library? Oh well, Soul Flash was sure he'd find some use for it. Maybe a wing-granting spell...
There was a loud roar, putting a quick stop to Soul Flash's sorting and thinking. The dragon was back.
It was an old thing, large and wrinkled. Its purple and green scales were fading, and its claws and fangs were growing dull. It seemed to have trouble blowing fire now, as it had never done so while Soul Flash was there, and he would have felt bad for the thing if it didn't try to dig under the ruin, his ruin, every week.
Soul Flash hurried out of his library, going to meet the dragon before it could destroy his home's foundation any further. He was almost to the exit when his hooves suddenly slipped out from under him. He yelped, tumbling forward and smashing his snout against one of the castle's pillars. He groaned, sitting up and rubbing his nose. He looked over to where he had tripped, expecting a rock or stray root he'd have to tear out, but what he saw made his ears flatten back and his horn spark a bit.
That damn book.
He picked it up with his magic, squeezing it a bit too hard as he brought it closer to him. It was leather-bound, with faded gold text on the cover that he couldn't read. There was an imprint on the front, implying something had been stuck there. It was gone now, but Soul Flash could tell from the imprint that it had been a stylized unicorn head.
"You want to come be dragon food?" he asked the book, tilting his head a bit as if expecting an answer from the inanimate object. He was being silly, but he was raging mad at the thing which he decided was a good enough excuse for his behavior. "Fine then. Come on." He took the book in his mouth, then hurried out of the ruin.